Our next show

[Big RR]

Thanks Sue.

[Sue U]

Well we've gotten the 2023-24 schedule for the Philharmonic and our new music director has chosen to go heavy on the classics for his first season, which is probably fine for really getting to know the orchestra and vice versa. We open Oct. 15 with Elgar's Enigma Variations and Brahms's Symphony #4; no concerto on the program. We'll do holiday pops in December with our former director and then come back in March with Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, Tchaikovsky's Symphony #2 and a piece (Ukrainian Dances) from a composer I never heard of, Levko Kolodub. In May we'll do Bernstein's Symphonic Dances, a piece by modern composer Robert Moran (Points of Departure) and the Barber Violin Concerto (soloist has yet to be announced). Robert Moran lives in Philadelphia these days so I would not be at all surprised to see him at the concert, and perhaps at rehearsals. I'm very much looking forward to this season.

[Big RR]

Looks like a good series--we are doing Carmina Burana in November and a concert with music by women composers in March; June is still a little up in the air, but is being planned with a good portion of music by English composers. This year is also our 60th anniversary as a chorale (no one currently a member has been there for that long) and we want to invite some of our more illustrious conductors back to participate in the last concert (at our 50th John Nelson was a guest conductor).

[Sue U]

Looks like a good series--we are doing Carmina Burana in November and a concert with music by women composers in March;

Where's the performance? How big a chorale do you have? What are you doing for an orchestra?

[Big RR]

I will let you know, but it will be in Bergen county; we are doing a score I have never seen before, one for two pianos and percussion (I have not seen the music yet). We are trying to get some additional singers to sing with us, so I am unsure of the chorale size yet--last time we did it (with an orchestra) we had about 60 singers, but I doubt we'll have that many now.

[Sue U]

PSNJ HOLIDAY POPS CONCERT, FEATURING AGT’S JIMMIE HERROD
DECEMBER 3 @ 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM EST
$15 – $30

Bring the whole family for a holiday pops concert presented by South Jersey’s largest all-volunteer classical ensemble. Conductor Matthew Oberstein leads the 85+ member Philharmonic of Southern New Jersey’s annual tradition of holiday cheer. The concert features guest vocalist Jimmie Herrod, 2021 America’s Got Talent finalist. Enjoy hearing some of your favorite holiday carols and join in for the audience sing-along!


Okay, this show is going to feature a jazz trio (piano/bass/drums) in the middle of the stage, but that means they're positioning the harp next to the violas, so we're good!

In addition to the standards (Sleigh Ride!), we're doing a bunch of more, um, unusual pieces, including a tropical island-beat number, the Barbra Streisand version of Jingle Bells, Steve Allen's Cool Yule and an absolutely swinging arrangement of No Place Like Home for the Holidays. It's gonna be festive. And yeah, that's our goofball conductor emeritus up there, who's coming back every year to do the holiday show.

ETA:

I've just been informed that we are now at 1,000 tickets sold, which means that there are only about 300 seats left. By the time door sales are done, it will be a standing-room only show, the first sell-out since The Before Times.